[sf-lug] seeking update advice

[Michael Paoli]

Trying not to be too redundant with excellent points made (and questions
raised) from this "thread", my additions in-line:

> Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:47:25 -0700
> From: jim <jim at systemateka.com>
> Subject: [sf-lug] seeking update advice
>
>     I'm running Ubuntu 10.04 on an Atom-based laptop.
> Support lapses sometime before May of 2013. I like
> support.

Support - especially security support, is a *good thing*!  :-)

>     I don't upgrade. I backup all files except OS files,
> then wipe the drive, then reinstall a new OS from some
> external media, then copy my files from backup to
> whatever partitions I've dreamed up this time.

A perfectly valid "upgrade" approach.  Has its advantages and
disadvantages.  Also, the relative pros/cons also vary among operating
systems and distributions.  Some are exceedingly excellent at upgrades
(e.g. preserving most or all user and system settings and data, while
well merging with updated configurations), some exceedingly suck at it
(e.g. generally result in a broken system and back line professional
engineering services spending more than a day trying to fix their mess
from following their documented upgrade procedures) ... but most fall
somewhere between those extremes.  Regardless, there are inherent
advantages and disadvantages to each approach.

> and Knoppix 7.0.5; I want to get hard media for each.
>
> QUESTIONS:

> * What are your recommendations for getting each distro
>   on physical media (CD or DVD or USB stick)? I don't
>   like downloading ISOs--my experience includes problems,
>   primarily with corrupt images. I like paying money to
>   support the development communities.

Get thee to a (e.g. BALUG) meeting ;-)  I may not have 'em burnt, but I
have *lots* of ISO images - and the files to verify them (and yes, I've
verified them).  Bring USB "thumb" drive or the like with suitable
available space, and I can not only give you copy of the ISOs, but,
right along with 'em, all the files needed to verify the images again.
See:
http://www.wiki.balug.org/wiki/doku.php?id=balug:cds_and_images_etc
E.g. just some of files I've got:
$ find KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN* ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-* -type f \
> -print | sort
KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN.iso
KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN.iso.verified/0x0E573DA0F13969EF1DD5ACAA3798E3D757E37087.asc
KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN.iso.verified/KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN.iso.md5
KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN.iso.verified/KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN.iso.md5.asc
KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN.iso.verified/KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN.iso.sha1
KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN.iso.verified/KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN.iso.sha1.asc
KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN.iso.verified/verified
KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN/KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN.iso
KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN/KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN.iso.md5
KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN/KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN.iso.md5.asc
KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN/KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN.iso.sha1
KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN/KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN.iso.sha1.asc
KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN/dpkg-l-cd-705.txt
KNOPPIX_V7.0.5CD-2012-12-21-EN/knoppix-cheatcodes.txt
ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-i386.iso
ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-i386.iso.verified/0xC5986B4F1257FFA86632CBA746181433FBB75451.asc
ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-i386.iso.verified/MD5SUMS
ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-i386.iso.verified/MD5SUMS-metalink
ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-i386.iso.verified/MD5SUMS-metalink.gpg
ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-i386.iso.verified/MD5SUMS.gpg
ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-i386.iso.verified/SHA1SUMS
ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-i386.iso.verified/SHA1SUMS.gpg
ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-i386.iso.verified/SHA256SUMS
ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-i386.iso.verified/SHA256SUMS.gpg
ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-i386.iso.verified/verified

If I've got suitable optical media, I can "burn" 'em if I don't have 'em
already burned - certainly CDs, anyway.  DVDs I'm not 100% sure about
quite yet - think I've only burned 3 so far, and don't think I've quite
nailed down the process to the point I'm >99.5% satisfied with and
confident in the results.

And nothing prevents one from donating to one's favorite
distribution(s)/organization(s)/cause(s) if one obtains that same data
by means other than purchasing media in a manner that contributes back
to the distribution.  Besides, how much write-once not-so-recyclable
media do we need to have manufactured and purchase?  That's also a key
reason I'm not "burning" much DVD/CD-R in advance of specific
requests/needs - trying to reduce the waste (also trying to reduce
volume of media I schlep to most meetings).

>     The complex, uber-smart, potentially hair-pulling
>   way is to install each such that they use the same
>   directories such as /var/ and /usr/ and /lib/ and

Others have well made the point too.  But I wouldn't share filesystems
across distributions like that.  Only areas I might consider sharing
would possibly be /boot (but as each tries to play "top dog", that could
frequently be hazardous/messy/disastrous) - but if, in case of only
Ubuntu + Knoppix, if one relatively rarely "updates" Knoppix, and only
does that quite carefully and manually, that might be fairly workable.
But even in such a case, may be simpler, and safer, to have Knoppix
first use its own separate /boot filesystem - and then manually and
carefully move/copy/merge things over.
/usr/local is another I'd consider sharing - certainly for architecture
independent stuff, and, presuming architectures of OSes match (and
hardware also - in this case it inherently does), then probably
generally okay to also share binaries (executables, etc.).  However that
still may not work 100% - e.g. due to differences in libraries provided
(and not provided) by the different OSes.
And I wouldn't share /home, but possibly sharing some subdirectory of
ordinary user's HOME directory *might* be okay.  In theory user having
same home directory across Unix-like operating systems *should* be okay,
unfortunately reality is often not well matched to that theory.  (Once
upon a time, when it was much more common to have user's HOME directory
(auto) NFS mounted on various Unix-like hosts, they often "played
together" nicer in that regard.  Now with a more often "everybody's got
their own host machine", all too often sharing a common HOME doesn't
play as well together as it ought to.)
May be highly feasible to share some quite select application data
filesystem(s), e.g. /var/local or filesystem below that point or similar
local equivalent.  But again, no guarantees - really quite depends what
you've got there.